Death (Si) — The Eighth of the Twelve Stages
In a Nutshell
The eighth of the Twelve Stages: the Five Elements' qi exhausted and stored away — Jia Wood's Death falls on Wu.
Quick facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Stage position | Eighth of the Twelve Stages |
| Jia Wood's Death | Wu |
| Yi Wood's Death | Hai (yin stems count backward) |
What is Death (Si)?
Death is the eighth stage of the "Twelve Stages," describing the Five Elements' qi exhausted and returned to storage. The counting is yang-forward, yin-backward: take Jia Wood — Jia's Birth is at Hai, and counting forward, Hai is Birth, Zi is Bath, Chou is Coming of Age, Yin is Arrival, Mao is Peak, Chen is Decline, Si is Sickness, and the eighth position, Wu, is Death. For the yin stem Yi Wood, Birth is at Wu, and counting backward, the eighth position, Hai, is Death. In other words, a Jia Wood Day Master meeting Wu, or an Yi Wood Day Master meeting Hai, is the Day Master traveling into the "Death" ground.
The image of "Death" is the Five Elements' qi exhausted and stored: like winter plants withered, seeds returned to the soil — the qi gathered to its utmost, stockpiled for the next round of nurturing. It sits between Sickness (seventh) and Grave (ninth): "Death" is the state of qi spent, "Grave" the place of storage — one a condition, the other a location. Note that Grave, Extinction, Conception, and Nurturing still follow; the Twelve Stages cycle round and round, so "Death" is not an ending but a link of storing and transformation.
The complete order of the Twelve Stages and the yang-forward / yin-backward rule are set out in the *San Ming Tong Hui* (Book 2, on the Five Elements lodging in the twelve palaces) and the *Zi Ping Zhen Quan* ("On the Life and Death of Yin and Yang"); the original passages are quoted below. MoZhu's Twelve Stages lookup tool uses the yang-forward / yin-backward counting and shows the stage of each of the Four Pillars' stems.
"Death" describes only one link in the Five Elements' cycle of strength — one auxiliary concept for reading the Day Master's strength — and has nothing to do with life and death in everyday language. This page introduces the stage's meaning, the lookup method, and the classical account, and draws no inferences from it.
Classical sources
"The Five Elements lodge in twelve palaces: Birth, Bathing, Cap and Belt, Official Post, Emperor, Decline, Sickness, Death, Grave, Extinction, Conception, Nurture, circling without end."
Plain words: The fixed order of the Twelve Stages.
Source: *San Ming Tong Hui*, Book 2, "On the Prosperity and Decline of the Five Elements and Their Lodging in the Twelve Palaces" — original: 五行寄生十二宫：长生、沐浴、冠带、临官、帝旺、衰、病、死、墓、绝、胎、养，循环无端，周而复始。
"The San Ming Ti Yao says: … eleventh, Death: the myriad things die, as a person dies."
Plain words: Death is simply the name of the eleventh phase, where vitality ends; it predicts nothing. Jia Wood is in Death at Wu, Yi Wood at Hai.
Source: *San Ming Tong Hui*, Book 2, "On the Prosperity and Decline of the Five Elements and Their Lodging in the Twelve Palaces", quoting the *San Ming Ti Yao* — original: 《三命提要》云：……十一曰死，万物死，如人之死也。
"Yang gathers and advances, so it runs forward; yin disperses and retreats, so it runs backward. That is why Birth, Bathing and the rest differ, forward for yang and backward for yin."
Plain words: Yang stems count forward, yin stems backward, so the two stems of one element land on different branches.
Source: *Zi Ping Zhen Quan*, "On the Life and Death of Yin and Yang" — original: 阳主聚，以进为进，故主顺；阴主散，以退为退，故主逆。长生沐浴等项，所以有阳顺阴逆之殊也。
*For entertainment purposes only.*